White Christmas

St Stéphane


I don't think this is quite what Bing had in mind when he sang that lovely song









White, it certainly was, snow it wasn't but it did look very pretty. This is when it was -10 degrees C.

And this, from another angle



Later on it warmed up to -2 degrees C and the feeding frenzy began. Not us, these little chaps

I shall refrain from putting up any pictures of our own delicious lunch. The reason being that I did follow the nice market stall holder's instructions to stuff the neck of the goose. Unfortunately it did look rather, well, how can I put this? Well, actually, erm ..... phallic. (Sorry, Mum)

As we fell about laughing, Jon only looking slightly worried having checked first (?), we imagined people giving theatrical winks in kitchens all over France. Ooh, err, Missus. Lots of nudge, nudge, wink, wink jokes going on.

We had a very nice, quiet and relaxed day, took several hours to eat our 7 small courses the only disaster was the completely defrosted basil sorbet which had been left out of the freezer to soften slightly. Not to worry, I replaced it with an exotic fruit one instead. Now I have to remember to serve the refrozen basil sorbet another day!

Food preparation

Ste Adèle

After days of planning to make this Christmas special, since it is the first Christmas Day we have spent alone for over thirty years, I think I have finally cracked it.

We went down to Cahors market this morning, hearing it was particularly special on Christmas Eve, and we were, frankly, rather disappointed. We bumped into friends who were equally surprised to find so few stalls and we wished each other a Happy Christmas. A very nice man found me a goose small enough for two people and proceeded to do things to it that I won't offend the vegetarians amongst you by describing. He told me exactly how to cook it, and I listened attentively even though we have had goose for Christmas dinner several times in the past.

We topped up the 'decent' wine cellar (as opposed to the everyday wine cellar), threw in a bunch of flowers for good measure and returned to a slap-up lunch of .... a hot dog.

The hard work will start this afternoon. I've picked a special fish menu for tonight, 5 courses in total but all light courses. I will try to get ahead for tomorrow's rather more ambitious menu too.

Happy Christmas one and all.

Following yonder star....

St Théophile

*So, last night we went to a little church in the middle of nowhere to sing carols in French and English.

We went with friends who offered to drive. They have a new toy. It's one of those virtual ladies who tells you which route to take in a rather bossy voice. Unfortunately she was temporarily switched off because they set her from their house and turned her on again when we left ours.

This caused the lady to go into a sulk. She just refused to speak to our driver again. The lights were on and the directions were shown on the screen, but she did not want to say 'In three hundred yards, turn right' to him at all. Eventually though she must have thawed out because one we hit Dordgneshire she started chatting again and, in revenge, led our driver down a series of very narrow, twisty, turny roads until he was worried that we would end up in a farmyard where he might come face to face with a farmer and his gun.

Luckily (?) though, she took us to the coldest church in the history of the world. Now, we've been in some cold churches in our time and no-one really expects to find a warm one now do they? But this particular little church took the crown. In fact I sat there thinking about the article I heard of the radio just a few days ago about the snow village .

The service began. There were no hymn books, no printed sheets, but the words were displayed on an overhead projector. The service was led by one of the chaplaincy of Aquitaine and a French padre. The readings were alternately in French and English, and so were the carols, sometimes we sang the carols in both languages.

There were about 50 hardy, frost-bitten souls in the church and we made a good noise. Except when the carol completely defeated us or the organist played the wrong tune, or the chorus twice. It was quite a challenge fitting in the French words to one of the verses of 'Hark, the Herald Angels Sing' but we all sang out loud.

The few children of the congregation dressed in the obligatory dressing gowns and tea towels to perform their little Nativity tableau. Joseph had his hands full with a lantern and staff and when Mary asked him to pass the baby to her, he grabbed the poor (fortunately plastic) mite by the middle and thrust him into her hands. As a show of good measure and affection he then patted the little thing on the head (quite hard!).

The three Kings wandered down the aisle with their gifts, tinsel turbans on their heads, one of them dancing a little jig to 'We Three Kings' and we were surprised by two of the oldest shepherds we've seen for many a year dressed equally in their dressing gowns and tea towel headgear. We decided that they wanted to relive the Nativity plays of their youth.

After the service, we all piled into the Salle des Fêtes for some well-earned, warming mulled wine and a slice of stollen cake (no, not STOLEN, Mr Anonymous commenter).

We thoroughly enjoyed our evening. The mixed French and English group at the little church were friendly and welcoming. We may well visit again.

In the warm weather - but we may still need to wear thermal underwear.

* PS: don't you just hate people who start a conversation with the word 'So...'?

Deck the halls, tra la la

St Daniel
Yesterday's weather: Boring. Well I suppose it is December

I've been decking the halls today. Well OK, they aren't exactly halls but they've been decked anyway.

I do enjoy getting the decorations out every year. Some have good memories from years gone by. I remember buying certain items. The Santa character from the MoMa shop in New York; The reindeer candle holder from Maplewood, NJ; the garlands from Santa Fir in Shamley Green, the best Christmas tree shop in southern England; there are the knitted decorations I made when the girls were younger and I was going through a knitting phase (I'm going through another right now) and their knitted stockings. We even have a little bell that Jon says was on his Christmas tree when he was a child. I think that is the oldest one.

It seems odd putting these decorations up in our new home here in France and I wonder what the people on the other side of the hill will be thinking of our twinkling lights across the valley - we never close our shutters, preferring to look out at the night sky.

All the villages locally have their own Christmas lights up now, they do look remarkably like the lights that were up during the summer when each village in turn was en fête but then, why not recycle them in winter? Some houses have lights outside, mostly the tubes of lights that have become popular in recent years. And then of course there are hanging Santas all over the place.

I feel very sorry for Santa, it just looks like they don't like him much over here. He is thrown from windows willy-nilly and dangles from the end of a piece of string as if he has just been convicted of some heinous crime and sent to the gallows. I don't think they are at all festive but rather a sorry sight. I must try and photograph one to prove my point.

Trees have appeared outside houses rather than inside and they are decorated with coloured paper bows - I wonder how they will stand up to the torrential rain we've had recently, not to mention the high winds.

My next task is to try and find the Christmas CDs that Jon carefully hid in a safe place ........

Bah, humbug

St Hubert
Yesterday's weather: beautifully sunny.

They've moved things around in the supermarkets again. They do this from time to time. Carrefour have even put up a marquee outside. We got quite excited, thinking that it might have something interesting in, but no, it looks a bit like a cross between Primark and TK Max without the designer clothes and with lots more of those articles that no-one particularly wants to buy: a few odd plates that once belonged to a set, a couple of poor quality towels and a few hedge trimmers(?).

Inside it has suddenly become ToysRUs. Piles of Disney dolls and toys, Lego and Spiderman have taken over three aisles. They are all overpriced to my mind. Do I already sound like Scrooge? and it's only 3 November. Because it is half term groups of children have been excitedly eyeing up the choice, no doubt ready to write their letters to Santa (do they do that in France?) and parents are wondering whether they a) have room for more toys b) can afford that Spiderman limousine for little Pierre and c) thinking that if little Jean next door has it then they will have to do both a and b.

In the next aisle there is an amazing array of chocolates, sweets and biscuits - I'd look very carefully at the sell-by dates before buying and if you buy them early hide them well. I've done this in the past and found packs of out of date chocolates at the back of the wardrobe at the end of January.

I really thought that this year Christmas would start much later than in the UK, and I suppose it has. In the US there is still Thanksgiving to get through before the Christmas season starts.

I'll never forget being in New York one Thanksgiving, we watched Macy's parade from beside Central Park on one of the coldest days I have ever known in my life, then the next day, Black Friday, we saw the Empire State building had changed from its Thanksgiving colours (lit up in orange) to its Christmas colours, red and green lights. Macy's put up its Christmas decorations and suddenly it all became like Miracle on 34th Street.

I don't really like to think about Christmas before 1 December so I will just blank it out until then this year.

Except....

I did buy my cards yesterday and plan to get them written this weekend.

We Wish You a Merry....

St Crépin
Yesterday's weather: lovely once again

I don't suppose you knew it was Christmas Day yesterday, did you? Our friend who, you will shortly understand (and I'm sure won't mind my telling you), is as mad as a hatter, decided that, since we weren't going to see each other over Christmas, we would celebrate a virtual Christmas Day complete with virtual Christmas Tree, lights, and virtual presents. You will therefore be surprised to learn that we are extremely tired this morning (our friends had to leave before light to catch their flight back to the horror that is South East England) and our sides are aching from laughing so much.

Jon was very pleased to have received a virtual RSJ so that he can virtually knock our two rooms into one. I was given a virtual Toblerone which I was happy to share around. Our friends received a hamster exercise ball (which I think will be too small for their Jack Russell - who is real by the way) and some jewellery - received by the person whose idea it was - I think she was hinting to her husband what should be on her list this Christmas.

What pleased Jon most was that he was able to avoid having to play Christmas Carols on the piano and I managed to conveniently lose the Christmas CDs. We played virtual charades and a rather surreal game of I-Spy.

I think it's rather good that we don't see these friends too often. At my age I don't think I can take the pace of 2.30am bedtimes and riotous laughter for more than a day or so at a time.

Thanks so much for coming. We had a wonderful time with you and look forward to a return match of I-Spy very soon.